JP2009064549A - Method and system for setting optical disk writing speed - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and system for identifying an optical medium so that an optical drive associates a write strategy with the optical medium even when the optical medium is released after the optical disk drive. <P>SOLUTION: The system 10 comprises an information processing component for generating storage information, the optical drive 12 for writing the information on the optical medium according to the write strategy, a write strategy table 18 which has optical medium identification codes for respectively containing one of the associated write strategies, and a write strategy module 14 which provides the general write strategy associated with the optical drive 12 by reading the general write strategy table for containing a plurality of the optical medium identification codes assigned beforehand for respectively associating with one of the general write strategies and the optical medium identification code from the optical medium to provide the general write strategy associated with the optical drive 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates generally to the field of optical drive operation of information handling systems, and more particularly to a method and system for setting an optical drive write speed for writing information to an optical medium.

  As information is becoming increasingly valuable and its use continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek to find additional means of processing and storing information. One option available to the user is an information processing system. Information processing systems generally process, compile, store and / or communicate information or data for business, personal or other purposes, thereby enabling users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information processing needs and requirements vary by user or application, the type of information being processed, the method of processing the information, the amount of information processed, stored or transmitted, and the information processed, stored or transmitted Depending on the speed and efficiency to be done, the information processing system may also vary. Information processing systems can be general because of their variations, or for specific users, or for specific uses such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, corporate data storage or global communications Can be configured. In addition, the information processing system can include various hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and transmit information, and can include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and network systems. Can be included.

  With the rapid increase in information processing systems, the amount of information processed and stored by users of information processing systems is also rapidly increasing. One option that is increasingly being used to store these large amounts of information is optical media. An optical disk drive writes information to an optical medium by a laser that illuminates the optical medium and selectively changes its reflection characteristics, and measures the reflection of the optical medium by irradiating the optical medium with a low-power laser. To read information. Typically, each optical drive writes to various types of optical media with a write strategy developed by the optical drive manufacturer. When an optical media manufacturer creates an improved optical medium, such as an optical medium that can accept information at a high optical drive writing speed, the optical drive manufacturer updates the optical drive firmware to update the optical media. A write strategy is developed. For example, a CD-RW optical drive reads an embedded ATIP start code from a CD-R optical disc to uniquely identify the CD-R medium. The optical drive then writes information to the media using a write strategy associated with the ATIP start code that it has in a table in the firmware. A standard body known as Orange Forum assigns codes to CD-R and CD-RW optical media manufacturers each time a new optical media is released, which allows the optical drive manufacturer to A strategy for writing speed and use by the medium can be developed and the developed writing speed and strategy can be stored in firmware. Other optical media, such as DVD media, can be provided with a similar configuration of such an identification code by being assigned by a standards body or by self-providing.

  One problem that arises from using an embedded code on an optical medium to identify the medium for the optical drive is that the optical drive may read an embedded code that it does not recognize from the inserted optical medium. That is. If the embedded identification code of the optical media is not found in the optical drive firmware, the optical drive typically reverts to a general strategy and writing speed. In general, the optical drive reduces the writing speed for the general writing strategy to a value that results in an acceptable quality of information writing regardless of the optical media. However, the use of slow writing speeds with unrecognized embedded codes is generally too traditional an approach because the writing speed of optical drives and optical media tends to increase over time. For example, CD-R and CD-RW optical drive manufacturers typically load the current ATIP start table into the optical drive firmware at the time of manufacture, but typically do not update its firmware after manufacture. Thus, an optical drive installed in an information processing system is an ATIP start for optical media released after manufacture of the optical drive, even though newly developed optical media are typically designed to write at high speed. As a result, the code cannot be recognized, and as a result, writing at a low speed accompanying the general writing strategy may be performed. One solution is to compare the unrecognized ATIP start code with a known code such as the last two digits of the ATIP start code. In order to write information to a medium having an unknown code, a writing strategy for the closest known code is used. However, the use of numerically close code writing strategies is unreliable and is close to the assumption that the closest numbered optical medium has similar writing characteristics to unknown optical media. There are many.

  Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for sufficiently identifying an optical medium so that the optical drive associates a write strategy with the optical medium even if the optical medium is released after the optical disk drive.

  In accordance with the present invention, a method and system is provided that substantially reduces the disadvantages and problems associated with prior methods and systems for writing information from an optical disk drive to an optical medium released after the optical disk drive. The optical media identification code is preassigned to the planned optical media by the assigning standards body or by a parameter set including the release date and made available for loading into the optical disk drive. Optical disk drives manufactured prior to the development of a write strategy for the planned optical media are generic write strategies based on planned optical media design parameters such as the latest media precursors available to drive manufacturers. Is associated with a pre-assigned identification code. By pre-assigning the identification code to the optical medium, the writing speed of the optical drive for writing to the optical medium released after the manufacturing of the optical drive is improved. This is because when the identification code is not known, the optical drive defaults to a low-speed general writing strategy.

  In particular, the manufacturer loads a pre-assigned optical media identification code into the manufactured optical disk drive and associates the pre-assigned identification code with a general write strategy. This general write strategy is made possible by the traditional and catch-all general write strategies of optical disk drives where the planned optical media identified by the pre-assigned code is Developed from the manufacturer's design parameters to have a general write strategy that allows writing at faster write speeds. For example, the optical media identification code may be pre-defined by the optical media manufacturer so that the manufacturer's existing optical media write strategy can be used as the manufacturer's planned optical media base point. Assigned. In one embodiment, the identification code has a common number for a given set of associated optical media and ends with a date stamp that identifies the version of the optical media with its release date. The write strategy module of the optical disk drive reads the identification code from the inserted optical medium and determines whether the identification code is associated with an assigned, pre-assigned or unknown optical medium. . If an identification code is assigned or has an associated writing strategy because it is pre-assigned, that writing strategy is used to write information to the optical medium. If the identification code is not known, a simple general write strategy is applied to write the information.

  The present invention provides several important technical advantages. One example of an important technical advantage is that even if the optical medium is released after the optical disk drive is manufactured, the optical disk drive sufficiently identifies the optical medium to associate the write strategy with the optical medium. . Pre-assigned optical media identification codes are those optical disc drives released prior to the development of an optical media write strategy, otherwise supported by a general write strategy that is conservative and in any case compatible Enables the development of general writing strategies for planned optical media so that writing can be done at faster speeds. The ability to write to newly released media at higher speeds with existing optical disc drives reduces the chances of users perceiving that the optical drive is malfunctioning, thereby providing after-sales service calls and optical drives Since the number of returned items decreases, user satisfaction increases.

The present invention may be better appreciated and its objects, features, and advantages will be more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying drawings. In some drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or similar components.
An optical disk drive recognizes an identification code of an optical medium that the disk drive did not have a write strategy at the manufacturing stage as a pre-assigned identification code, so that information generated by the information processing system is stored in the optical medium. Remember. Information from the information processing system is written to the optical medium by a general writing strategy, which is associated with a pre-assigned identification code and is based on the optical media design parameters planned during manufacture of the disk drive. It has been developed. For this application, the information processing system calculates, classifies, processes, transmits, receives, retrieves, generates, switches, stores any form of information, knowledge or data for trading, scientific purposes, management or other purposes. It may comprise means or a collection of means that operate to display, declare, detect, record, replay, control or use. For example, the information processing system may be a personal computer, a network storage device or any other suitable device, and its size, shape, performance, function and price can vary. An information processing system includes a random access memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as a central processing unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, a ROM, and / or other types of non-volatile. And a memory. Additional components of the information processing system include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices, and various input / output (I / O) devices such as a keyboard, mouse and video display. May be included. The information processing system may also include one or more buses that operate to send exchanges between various hardware.

  Referring to FIG. 1A, an information processing system 10 having an optical disk drive 12 that writes information to an optical medium 14 according to a write strategy associated with a pre-assigned optical medium identification code is shown in a block diagram. . Information processing components associated with the information processing system 10 generate and store information and communicate the information to the optical disk drive 12. The optical disk drive 12 prepares to write information on the optical medium 14 by reading a certain optical medium identifier from the optical medium 14 by the laser 16. For example, an ATIP start code issued by Orange Forum for a CD-R optical medium is read from the inner diameter area. Another type of writable optical media such as CD + RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD + RW optical media can be identified by a similar code embedded in the optical media at the time of manufacture. The read optical media identification code is compared with the codes listed in the write strategy table 18 to determine a write strategy for writing information to the optical media.

  The write strategy table 18 is stored in memory associated with the optical disk drive 12, such as the firmware of the optical disk drive 12 or the memory of an information processing component accessible by this firmware. The write strategy table 18 is a write strategy developed by the manufacturer for a known tested optical medium, placed at the time of manufacture of the optical disk drive 12. For example, optical disk drive manufacturers have tested each of the various types of optical media available to write information to each optical media with the desired accuracy, speed and pulse length, duration, delay and shape. The write strategy setting relating to the pulse characteristics is determined. Optical disk drive manufacturers associate a writing strategy with a unique identification code for each type of optical media. Since each identification code is assigned to a particular optical media type of the optical media manufacturer, these writing strategies are stored as assigned writing strategies.

  The write strategy table 18 also has an identification code when the optical disk drive 12 is manufactured, for which the optical medium 14 is not known, or for which the optical disk drive manufacturer has not developed an associated write strategy. A common general write strategy used when The general write strategy writes information at a conservatively set speed to allow the optical disk drive 12 to write information with acceptable quality to virtually any optical medium with an unknown identification code. Include. This conservative general writing strategy ensures accurate writing of information to a less advanced optical medium designed to be used at slow writing speeds, but is designed for use at high writing speeds. Its use on newly developed optical media slows down the writing of information by the optical disk drive 12 unnecessarily. For example, a user of an information processing system that has inserted a new optical medium into a new optical disk drive expects the drive to write at or near its maximum speed. However, if the manufacturer did not have a write strategy for the new optical medium when the optical disk drive was manufactured, the general write strategy available for the unknown identification code is used, resulting in Therefore, the writing speed becomes slow, and the performance is erroneously recognized by the user.

  In order to prevent useless dependence on conservative and slow general writing strategies available for unknown optical media, optical media identification codes are pre-assigned to the planned optical media and the writing strategy table 18 Remembered. For example, each optical media manufacturer is pre-assigned an optical media identification code for the optical media planned for development by that manufacturer, even if the manufacturer has not undertaken development work. The manufacturer provides the optical disk drive manufacturer with the planned optical media design parameters, such as the planned write speed or the relationship of the planned optical media to the manufacturer's existing optical media. Therefore, the optical disk drive manufacturer develops a general write strategy for the planned optical medium and associates the general write strategy with a pre-assigned optical medium identification code stored in the write strategy table 18. Can do. Therefore, the optical disk drive 12 receives the optical medium developed after the optical disk drive is manufactured, reads the identification code from the optical medium, and writes the read identification code to the pre-assigned identification code of the strategy table 18. And applying the general writing strategy to write information to the optical medium by using the general writing strategy associated with the pre-assigned identification code. Optical disc manufacturers process general write strategies based on the reverse compatibility of new media and looking at existing related media to find the best fit for the planned media. In one embodiment, the associated media have the same identification code except for a time stamp added at the end of the identification code that identifies the version of the media. In such an embodiment, if a complete identification code is present in the write strategy table, the information is written to the optical medium by the assigned write strategy, and there is no version time stamp and time If the general write strategy is selected by the part of the identification code preceding the stamp, the information is written by the general write strategy.

  Referring now to FIG. 1B, the use of an optical media identification code pre-assigned to the optical media manufacturer is illustrated in one example of an optical disk drive 18 for a CD-R or CD-RW drive. ing. A three part ATIP start code is associated with the assigned and future planned optical media. For each ATIP start code, the optical drive write strategy table has a write strategy that includes the write speed. The ATIP start code assigned to the manufacturer's existing optical medium has a corresponding entry in the write strategy table 18, and the write strategy was developed for the optical medium by the optical disk drive manufacturer. Is. Pre-assigned ATIP start codes for future planned optical media are stored in the general strategy write strategy table 18 processed by the optical disk drive manufacturer based on an analysis of the design parameters of the future optical media. Has an entry corresponding to. For example, optical disk drive manufacturers may use optical media write strategies with similar design parameters, or simply use general write strategies at high write speeds. Instead, if the identification code uses a time stamp configuration, the optical disk drive manufacturer has an assigned write strategy and uses the assigned write strategy as a general write strategy. Performs an algorithm that finds a version of the optical medium by reference to its time stamp portion. The write strategy for the pre-assigned optical media identification code selects the lower of the planned maximum write speed of the optical media or the maximum write speed of the optical disk drive.

  Referring to FIG. 2, a flow diagram illustrates a method for writing information to an optical medium with a writing strategy associated with a pre-assigned optical medium identification code. The process begins with the reading of the optical media identification code from the optical media by the optical disk drive in step 20. In step 22, the read identification code is compared to the write strategy table identification code to determine whether the identification code is associated with an optical medium. For example, it is determined whether an identification code that matches the time stamp of the read identification code is present in the write strategy table. If no, the process proceeds to step 24 where the read identification code is compared with the identification code in the write strategy table to determine whether the identification code is pre-assigned to the planned optical medium. For example, it is determined whether there is a match in the write strategy table for the first part of the identification code rather than the time stamp. If there is a match for the first part, the assigned write strategy for that identification code part with the most recent date stamp is selected as the general write strategy. If the result of step 22 or 24 is yes, the process proceeds to step 26 where the writing speed of the optical medium is set to the maximum writing speed of the optical disk drive so that the writing speed of the writing strategy does not exceed the maximum writing speed of the optical disk drive. Compare with A yes result in step 22 selects a write strategy from the write strategy table associated with the optical medium assigned to the read identification code. As a result of yes in step 24, a general write strategy is selected from the write strategy table associated with the planned optical medium pre-assigned to the read identification code. If the result of step 24 is no, the process proceeds to step 28 and a common general write strategy is selected. The selection of a common general write strategy represents, for example, that the read identification code is from an unknown optical media manufacturer.

  Although the present invention has been described in detail above, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and modifications can be made without departing from the technical scope of the present invention defined by the appended claims. Should be recognized.

1 is a block diagram of an information processing system having an optical drive for writing information to an optical medium based on a pre-assigned identification code. The flowchart of the method of writing information by the optical medium identification code allocated beforehand.

Claims (20)

An information processing component that operates to generate information for storage;
An optical drive interfaced with the information processing component for receiving and storing information and operating to write the information to an optical medium according to a writing strategy having a writing speed;
A writing strategy table associated with the optical drive and having a plurality of optical media identification codes each having one associated writing strategy;
A general write strategy table associated with the optical drive, each having a plurality of pre-assigned optical media identification codes associated with one of the plurality of general write strategies;
Reading the optical media identification code from the optical media to provide a writing strategy associated with the optical drive, and further reading the pre-assigned optical media identification code to provide a general writing strategy associated with the optical drive An information processing system comprising a writing strategy module that operates in the manner described above.   In addition, a general writing strategy associated with the unknown optical medium identification code is provided, and the writing strategy module further reads the unknown optical medium identification code and associates the general writing strategy with the unknown identification code. The information processing system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system is operative to provide a writing strategy to the optical drive.   The information of claim 1, wherein each pre-assigned optical media identification code is pre-assigned by an optical media manufacturer and is associated with a write strategy for writing information to the optical media of the manufacturer by an optical disk drive. Processing system.   4. The information processing system according to claim 3, wherein each optical medium identification code assigned in advance is associated with an optical medium identification code having a write strategy table.   4. Information processing according to claim 3, wherein each pre-assigned optical medium identification code general writing strategy includes a writing speed and the optical drive writes information at a speed slower than this writing speed or at the maximum speed of the optical drive. system.   The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the optical medium identification code includes an ATIP start code.   The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the optical disk drive includes a DVD disk drive. Associating an optical medium identification code with an optical medium having a writing strategy for writing information from the optical disk drive to the optical medium, each writing strategy having a plurality of writing parameters;
Pre-assigning an optical medium identification code to an optical medium that does not have a write strategy for writing information from the optical disk drive to the optical medium;
Associating a general writing strategy with a pre-assigned optical medium identification code, the general writing strategy having one or more parameters of a writing strategy associated with an optical medium having a writing strategy;
A method of writing information from an optical disk drive to an optical medium comprising storing an optical medium identification code and writing a strategy for access by the optical disk drive to write information to the optical medium.   9. The method of claim 8, further comprising associating a general writing strategy with an unknown optical medium that does not have an assigned or pre-assigned optical medium identification code. Reading an optical medium identification code from an optical medium having an optical disk;
Determining that the optical medium identification code is a pre-assigned optical medium identification code;
10. The method of claim 9, further comprising writing information to the optical medium according to a general writing strategy associated with the pre-assigned optical medium identification code. General write strategy parameters include write speed, and
Compare the general writing speed with the maximum writing speed of the optical drive,
The method of claim 10 including writing information at a rate that is slower than a general writing rate and a maximum writing rate of the optical drive. The step of pre-assigning the optical medium identification code includes
The optical media manufacturer pre-assigns an optical media identification code,
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising associating one or more write strategy parameters with a pre-assigned optical media identification code according to a time stamp attached to the identification code.   9. The method of claim 8, wherein the write strategy parameter includes a write speed.   The method of claim 8, wherein the optical media identification code comprises an ATIP start code. Pre-assign an optical media identification code to the optical media manufacturer,
Associating planned optical media design parameters with pre-assigned optical media identification codes;
Communicate the pre-assigned optical media identification code and associated design parameters to the optical disk drive manufacturer;
Recognizing a pre-assigned optical media identification code and forming an optical disk drive to write information according to design parameters with a general write strategy;
Releasing an optical medium having a pre-assigned optical medium identification code;
Configuring the optical disk drive to write information to the optical medium, including writing information to the optical medium released from the optical disk drive by a general writing strategy associated with the pre-assigned optical medium identification code Method.   The method of claim 15, wherein the design parameters include optical disk drive write speed.   The method of claim 15, wherein the design parameters include similarity to the manufacturer's one or more existing optical media. A writing strategy table having a plurality of optical media identification codes, each having one associated writing strategy;
A write strategy module operable to read an optical medium identification code from the optical medium and select a write strategy associated with the identification code from a write strategy table to write information to the optical medium;
The at least one optical media identification code includes a pre-assigned optical media identification code associated with an optical media planned for optical disc drive development during manufacture of the optical disc drive, the planned optical media being An optical disc drive with design parameters.   The optical disk drive of claim 18, wherein the design parameter includes a writing speed for writing information to the optical medium.   19. The optical disk drive of claim 18, wherein the pre-assigned optical media identification code is pre-assigned by the optical media manufacturer, and the design parameters relate to the existing optical media of the optical media manufacturer.

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